Chickens Aren't the Only Ones
"Chickens Aren't the Only Ones" is Episode 3 in Season 5. It originally aired on June 24, 1987. Synopsis The episode begins with LeVar posing as an investigative reporter live on location on the farm for EGG-TV. He welcomes the viewers by trying to find the answer to that age-old question: "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?". He tries interviewing some roosters, but it seems they have nothing to say. He tries asking some hens. This question isn't eggs-actly easy to answer. There can be more than one answer to it. LeVar states that chickens aren't the only ones who do all the egg laying. He is in an incubator room where he is surrounded by dozens of chicken eggs. They're not the kind you eat for breakfast. These are the ones which will hatch into little baby chicks. When the mother hen sits on an egg to hatch it, she continuously turns it with her foot to keep the yolk from sticking inside the shell. In the incubator, the eggs are kept inside at 99 degrees for almost 20 days before they're hatched. The machine rotates around to perform the same action of the mother hen. It's almost like they are still under their mother. LeVar receives a late-breaking report that's about to break open. The story/song called "I'm Breakin' Out" is about a chick who's going to hatch right out of his egg shell and see the world. LeVar is investigating at a beach in Florida where something can break out at any given moment. For his egg-sclusive evening report, he is going to witness a loggerhead sea turtle laying her eggs and burying them in the sand. He interviews Dr. Lou Ehrhart, a turtle biologist. They get an up-close look at one as she lays her eggs. LeVar claims that he has never been close to one before. When she lays her eggs, she raises her flippers to let you now that she's having her babies. The eggs are about the size of a Ping-Pong ball. One can lay as many as 150 in one day. She covers them with sand to keep them safe. She uses her flippers just like human hands. As she covers her eggs, she blends her nest in with the sand to keep others from taking her eggs away. For one, swimming can be very tiring with so much weight. The eggs that are to hatch have to go on without any parental guidance. It will take several weeks for them to do so. Once they have done so, the babies go off into the ocean and swim out as far as they can. LeVar and Lou set one free out into the sea, ready for him to start a new life. Back in the incubator room, LeVar is hearing a lot of cheeping going on. The eggs have hatched! All the little chicks are ready to see the world. For as long as people have been asking, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?", they have also said that you shouldn't count your chickens until they hatch. There are just too many to count. It seems that we never got to find the answer to that age-old question. That's because some have more than one answer, and those can lead to even more questions. LeVar wonders which came first, the question or the answer. That may be another subject for his next report on EGG-TV. A reprise of "I'm Breakin' Out", accompanied by looks at some of the chicks that have hatched, is heard during the closing credits. Review Books *Egg to Chick *Mrs. Huggins and Her Hen Hannah *Turtle and Tortoise Category:Season 5 Category:Episodes